January 30, 2012

The author of War Horse describes the important role that war has played in shaping his world view.

In this clip, Michael talks about...

Being a war baby
"All I know is that I'm a war baby, I grew up after the Second World War, and I lived in London and I saw the result of war all around me. I thought it was just buildings first of all - we use to play in bomb sites - they were the best playgrounds you could possibly invent. Wonderful. And then I suppose [at] 5 or 6 I began to realize there was something that had gone on - they called it war."

What survivors must endure
"War doesn't just kill people and knock down buildings, it destroys those who live on afterwards."

Who is killed in a war
"And now when I see on my television, a bomb hitting some bridge in Iraq or Afghanistan and some lorry simply going up in smoke, I don't think, 'clever, clever.' I think that person in that lorry had a mother, had a father, had a son, has a daughter - and they didn't mean to fight this war. Why do we go on doing this stuff?"